The organised labour distanced itself from the botched mass action tagged: “Revolution Now”, because the issues involved were not thoroughly debated by the appropriate organs of the Congress. It noted that before embarking on any mass action or street protest, issues involved would have been exhaustively debated.
In a statement by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the decision to do a mass action or any form of protest, the union said, is usually taken by those organs.
“Accordingly, we wish to state unambiguously that neither has such an issue arisen nor a debate for a mass action taken place, let alone a decision to proceed on a mass action.
“We are, therefore, not involved in any street protest. Nonetheless, Congress respects the right of the citizenry to freely associate and hold an opinion and to peacefully protest against any policy or policies with which they disagree,” Wabba said .
Similarly, TUC President Comrade Quadri Olaleye, in a media statement on the protest, distanced the union from the protest, saying it had no plan to embark on mass action or street protest in the country for now.
Olaleye clarified that TUC was not in league with any group whatsoever, for any mass action in any part of the country. He stated further that there were no issues in contention with any public authority that had not been subjected to social dialogue.
“The labour centres, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), therefore wish to inform members and affiliate unions, civil society allies and the general public that they are neither organising nor getting associated with any mass action or street protest over any issue in any part or every part of the country in the days ahead,” it said.
The NLC further said if such issues arose, the Labour Centre would go through its internal mechanism to procure authority for such an action, bearing in mind that its organs must be properly briefed and thorough debates undertaken before the organs can give approval.
“In this case no issue has arisen, no organ has been summoned, and no debate has been undertaken, therefore no such decisions have been taken,” it said.
